A fire, in Panchkula center of Akash Institute in sector 14, caused extensive damage. The firemen had a tough time in dozing off the fire that was notice at about 6.30 AM on Wednesday. Thankfully, it did not spread to lower floors of the showroom. On ground floor of the showroom is the restaurant Gazab India.

About 10 fire vehicles from Panchkula, Chandigarh and Pinjore struggled for nearly 4 hours to control the fire. The fire department had to take help of hydraulic platform of Chandigarh Fire department to control the fire on the top floor.

The cause of fire is yet not know but short-circuit is being assumed as cause of fire as of now. Complete infrastructure of the institute including furniture, fixtures and electronic devices like computers were stated to have been destroyed in the fire.

Later during the evening hours, a forensic team also visited the spot to ascertain the cause of fire.

Strange enough, the fire department of Panchkula has been seeking hydraulic platform for past about a decade. Panchkula has many multistoried societies in different sectors now and Panchkula fire department is not equipped to handle any fire on upper floors, which was evident from the fact that even for second floor of a showroom, it had to summon the hydraulic platform from Chandigarh. The firemen also lacked fire suits.

Subhash Papneja, General Secretary of Resident’s Welfare Association said that he had written several letters to administration in this regard but to no avail. There was no action by Local Bodies department or MLA, he said.